TECH NEWS – After the iPhone 16e, we may have to wait a little longer for the next budget phone from the Cupertino company…

The appeal of the iPhone 16e certainly doesn’t come from its starting price of $600, but rather from the fact that Apple has introduced an innovation in design and features that goes beyond what the previous generation iPhone SE 3 offered. These changes have allowed the new release to gain enough shipments for Apple to take the “smartphone crown” worldwide in the first quarter of 2025.

From this success, we could conclude that the iPhone 17e could be released next year, but now we hear that the Cupertino-based company has not yet decided on this. Judging by the popularity of the iPhone 16e, any reasonable person would argue that a successor as soon as possible would be in Apple’s interest, but this is not necessarily true. It may be that a test production run will start soon, but Bloomberg editor Mark Gurman wrote in his weekly Power On newsletter that the tech company is still undecided about the device.

The iPhone 16e generated a lot of interest because it was very different from the iPhone SE 3. In comparison, the iPhone 17e will have few spec differences from its immediate predecessor, so the lack of exclusive updates may not have the same resonance. It also doesn’t look like Apple will invest a lot of resources and manpower to improve the iPhone 17e’s aesthetics. The new model would probably keep the look of the iPhone 16e. The only notable improvement would be that the newer model could come with a binned A19. However, there is a possibility that Apple could add mmWave connectivity or MagSafe wireless charging to the feature set.

But this is still just a rumor, so who knows what Apple will do with the entry-level smartphone? Could the 16e stay?

Source: WCCFTech, 9to5mac